On this episode of the Knowledge Project, I’m joined by the fascinating Dan Ariely. Dan just about does it all. He has delivered 6 TED talks with a combined 20 million views, he’s a multiple New York Times best-selling author, a widely published researcher, and the James B Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University.

For the better part of three decades, Dan has been immersed in researching why humans do some of the silly, irrational things we do. And yes, as much as we’d all like to be exempt, that includes you too.

In this captivating interview, we tackle a lot of interesting topics, including:

The three types of decisions that control our life and how understanding our biases can help us make smarter decisions

How our environment plays a big role in our decision making and the small changes we can make to automatically improve our outcomes

The “behavioural driven” bathroom scale Dan has been working on to revolutionize weight loss

Which of our irrational behaviors transfer across cultures and which ones are unique to certain parts of the world (for example, find out which country is the most honest)

The dishonesty spectrum and why we as humans insist on flirting with the line between “honest” and “dishonest”

3 sneaky mental tricks Dan uses to avoid making ego-driven decisions

“Pluralistic ignorance” and how it dangerously affects our actions and inactions (As a bonus, Dan shares the hilarious way he demonstrates this concept to his students on their first day of class)

The rule Dan created specifically for people with spinach in their teeth

The difference between habits, rules, and rituals, and why they are critical to shaping us into who we want to be

This was a riveting discussion and one that easily could have gone for hours. If you’ve ever wondered how you’d respond in any of these eye-opening experiments, you have to listen to this interview. If you’re anything like me, you’ll learn something new about yourself, whether you want to or not.

On this episode of the Knowledge Project Podcast, I chat with Patrick Collison, co-founder and CEO of the leading online payment processing company,Stripe.If you’ve purchasedanythingonline recently, there’s a good chance that Stripe facilitated the transaction.

What is now an organization with over a thousand employees and handling tens of billions of dollars of online purchases every year, began as a small side experiment while Patrick and his brother John were going to college.

During our conversation, Patrick shares the details of their unlikely journey and some of the hard-earned wisdom he picked up along the way. I hope you have something handy to write with because the nuggets per minute in this episode are off the charts. Patrick was so open and generous with his responses that I’m really excited for you to hear what he has to say.

Here are just a few of the things we cover:

The biggest (and most valuable) mistakes Patrick made in the early days of Stripe and how they helped him get better

The characteristics that Patrick looks for in a new hire to fit and contribute to the Stripe company culture

What compelled he and his brother to move forward with the early concept of Stripe, even though on paper it was doomed to fail from the start

The gaps Patrick saw in the market that dozens of other processing companies were missing — and how he capitalized on them

The lessons Patrick learned from scaling Stripe from two employees (he and his brother) to nearly 1,000 today

How he evaluates the upsides and potential dangers of speculative positions within the company

How his Irish upbringing influenced his ability to argue and disagree without taking offense (and how we can all be a little more “Irish”)

The power of finding the right peer group in your social and professional circles and how impactful and influential it can be in determining where you end up.

The 4 ways Patrick has modified his decision making process over the last 5 years and how it’s helped him develop as a person and as a business leader (this part alone is worth the listen)

Patrick’s unique approach to books and how he chooses what he’s going to spend his time reading

...life in Silicon Valley, Baumol’s cost disease, and so, so much more.

Patrick truly is one of the most warm, humble and down to earth people I’ve had the pleasure to speak with and I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation together. I hope you will too!